Editor at large, The Bulwark. Director, Defending Democracy Together. Host, Conversations with Bill Kristol. Never Trump.
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Leaving aside the typical histrionics, this seems to be Trump beginning to distance himself from Kennedy (who’s “ripping apart” CDC), and inviting mainstream physicians and scientists to defend the vaccines, so Trump can then say, I got them to explain it better and vaccines are OK.
Jay Nordlinger: “I love this country and its political system—its constitutional way of life. And our country, its way of life are worth struggling to maintain. Don’t leave the field to our foes. Our illiberal foes. Hang in there. Okay, that’s my lil’ speech.” open.substack.com/pub/jaynordl...
His administration is more authoritarian than ever, the red states are as aggressive as ever, the destruction of our health care system is worse than ever—and Trump doesn’t seem particularly engaged or even well. What’s up as we enter September? Tim and JVL discuss. youtu.be/N3XMfXXnD4I?...
"The CDC saga was seen as a component of a larger story that [Democrats] could tell about Donald Trump dismantling the health care system...Another part, likely more politically potent, would be health care becoming less affordable and less accessible." www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...
Boston is the safest city in the United States. All this is gonna do is makes Bostonians less safe and less free. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
"Sending away the 'others' to make way for white people to flourish is at the literal center of Gast’s painted vision of the West. That vision is reproduced in Homeland Security’s own videos." ICYMI:
"Liberal democracy is created and imposed; it must be maintained through active tending. You probably see where I’m going with this: Is it already too late?"
Liberals: “We could try to DO some things to reduce gun violence; ‘thoughts and prayers’ isn’t enough.” Republicans: “Outrage! Disgrace! They’re attacking prayer.” There’s no need to be polite or defensive in response to this. Invoking faith as an excuse to shun responsibility deserves no respect.
Powerful piece by @markhertling.bsky.social. “I am infuriated that the Air Force plans to grant military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt. She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it.” www.thebulwark.com/p/honoring-a...
Anne Applebaum: European leaders "understand the stakes of the war, but also the profound change in Washington. And none of them will say this publicly, and I understand why...But they’re horrified by the Alaska meeting and by domestic politics inside the United States." youtu.be/F8yzpfxOm6o?...
52 of 53 Republican senators voted to confirm him.
Leaving aside the typical histrionics, this seems to be Trump beginning to distance himself from Kennedy (who’s “ripping apart” CDC), and inviting mainstream physicians and scientists to defend the vaccines, so Trump can then say, I got them to explain it better and vaccines are OK.
senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, former chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) & director of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign👇🏽
We’re only a few years removed from creatjng a vaccine to protect against a deadly airborne virus in a matter of months. Now, we have a scion fail son running the CDC into the ground not because it failed, but because its success conflicts with RFK Jr’s eugenicist ideology.
“But our march had done its work. We had drawn the attention of the nation to the crime of child labor…The Pennsylvania legislature passed a child labor law that sent children home from the mills, and kept others from entering the factory until they were fourteen.” www.thebulwark.com/p/labor-day-...
“There are those who would try to refuse the worker any effective power to bargain collectively, to earn a decent livelihood and to acquire security. It is those shortsighted ones who threaten this country with class dissension…” — Franklin Roosevelt, Sep. 6, 1936 www.thebulwark.com/p/labor-day-...
52 of 53 Republican senators voted to confirm him.
“I have faith in people outside of government. The professional organizations, doctors, nurses, and other providers—and also the parents…So I’m hopeful in that sense. I’m just not necessarily hopeful that the federal government is going to be the answer anymore…” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
Anne Applebaum: European leaders "understand the stakes of the war, but also the profound change in Washington. And none of them will say this publicly, and I understand why...But they’re horrified by the Alaska meeting and by domestic politics inside the United States." youtu.be/F8yzpfxOm6o?...
“My deepest fear is that we are close to a tipping point where even if a significant majority of Americans decide that they want to change course, they won’t be able to. The cascade will have doomed liberal democracy.” www.thebulwark.com/p/democracy-...
“One thing goes wrong, and there’s only a few compensatory pathways that can step in. They get overstressed…It’s a simple complex system. Because it’s simple, it’s prone to cascades, and because it’s complex, you can’t predict what’s going to fail. Or how.” www.thebulwark.com/p/democracy-...
Powerful piece by @markhertling.bsky.social. “I am infuriated that the Air Force plans to grant military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt. She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it.” www.thebulwark.com/p/honoring-a...
Liberals: “We could try to DO some things to reduce gun violence; ‘thoughts and prayers’ isn’t enough.” Republicans: “Outrage! Disgrace! They’re attacking prayer.” There’s no need to be polite or defensive in response to this. Invoking faith as an excuse to shun responsibility deserves no respect.
Trump wants to control the Fed not simply because 1) he wants more control over everything and 2) he has a general preference for low interest rates, but 3) because he wants a loyal and politicized Fed to goose the economy at the right time in 2026 and especially 2028. vimeo.com/1114403325/7...
NEW. A wide-ranging and I think very instructive conversation with @anneapplebaum.bsky.social on Ukraine, Europe, Trump, and the danger of authoritarianism. youtu.be/F8yzpfxOm6o?...
In today's Morning Shots: @eggerdc.bsky.social provides an excellent analysis of the chaos and destruction at the CDC, and the price we'll pay for it. I put myself in Trump's mind and explain why he may well fire Kennedy. www.thebulwark.com/p/camelot-fo...
It’s easier to purchase an assault rifle in the U.S. than it is to get a COVID19 vaccine. But food dyes and wearable fitness monitors are going to fix everything.
Wild how every single day under Trump 2 is a confirmation of the worst fears of what his return to power would mean & yet everyone in a position of power to stop it from 2021 on, or leading nominal formal democratic opposition now, seems to mostly not act like this is a singular unmaking of America
“A delayed advisory panel meeting and shifting vaccine policies under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are making it difficult for people to get updated Covid shots.” www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
“To still hold this hope and joy in her heart despite all the sadness and trauma that she had gone through, I think that’s how we fight back.” www.thebulwark.com/p/what-happe...
Reading Trump's Mind. "This stuff at CDC and HHS isn’t getting me power, or glory, or money. And everything is in the service of Bobby. Not me. It’s like it was with Elon. He became the story, and it turned into not a good one. And I don’t like not-good stories." www.thebulwark.com/p/camelot-fo...
Reading Trump's Mind. "I know that Bobby’s got his own base, with all those MAHA weirdos...So it’s a little tricky to dump him. But you know what? It was tricky to dump Elon. I dumped him. And he’s slinked away. Well, now it may be time to dump Bobby." www.thebulwark.com/p/camelot-fo...
"Kennedy might have prospered had he simply been content to continue slapping a MAHA coat of paint on the good work of the government’s actual scientists. Instead, he seems determined to rip the engine out while the car is hurtling down the interstate." www.thebulwark.com/p/camelot-fo...
In today's Morning Shots: @eggerdc.bsky.social provides an excellent analysis of the chaos and destruction at the CDC, and the price we'll pay for it. I put myself in Trump's mind and explain why he may well fire Kennedy. www.thebulwark.com/p/camelot-fo...
“It would probably be better for the party as a whole if [the Democratic National Committee] just turned the lights off and padlocked the building for the next two years.” My only quarrel with this comment by a Dem strategist is the use of the word "probably." www.thebulwark.com/p/rakes-dems...
Reading the new details about what went down at CDC, one thing jumps out at me: In standing up to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director Monarez has shown the kind of backbone and integrity that often earns public servants a Profile in Courage Award— —awarded by the family of John F. Kennedy.
NEW. A wide-ranging and I think very instructive conversation with @anneapplebaum.bsky.social on Ukraine, Europe, Trump, and the danger of authoritarianism. youtu.be/F8yzpfxOm6o?...
"If you are an authoritarian, or a wannabe authoritarian, you are inherently driven to follow a specific checklist that allows you to a) consolidate power and b) neutralize sources of dissent...Trump has made extraordinary progress in a short period of time." open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
"Donald Trump is not governing—he is waging war on the American government itself...This is all the same project: attacking the government and re-engineering it to serve as a weapon against the American people." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-cdc-th...
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the agency with responsibility for protecting America’s health—may have just lost its director and four seasoned leaders...It’s shaping up to be a crisis of governance as unnerving as any we’ve seen in the Trump era." www.thebulwark.com/p/prayers-pe...
Bondi, Patel, Hegseth et al are doing what Trump wants. They're his loyalists and his agents. Trump (who is proud of Operation Warp Speed) has no similar relationship to RFK Jr. Trump made a deal with him. He could dump him. There's a potential wedge there, between Trump and Kennedy. Exploit it.
"I remember reading Nietzsche in college: 'When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks back into you.' Having the abyss look back into you seemed to me a bad thing, so I’ve tried ever since to avoid frequent abyss-looking... But we're heading towards it." www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
wtf is this nonsense? He thinks he can understand kid’s “mitochondrial challenges” just by looking at them? This is an insane person.
CHAOS ERUPTS AT CDC CDC Director Susan Monarez has been ousted after RFK Jr. demanded she change her policy on the COVID vaccine. Top officials from the Vaccine Unit, Zoonotic Division, and the Chief Medical Officer are resigning, per reports. Horrifying news for public health.
The MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) anti-vaccination conspiracy movement, led by RFK Jr., is in control of the U.S. government’s health agencies, including the CDC. MAHA is already causing health crises, and it will cause more in the coming months. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...
“Trump’s pretense to ownership of public goods and public spaces isn’t some quirk to be ignored or waited out — “there goes our Donald!” — but a direct expression of his autocratic ambitions and despotic cast of mind.”
“These programs are the backbone of a liability system that is a big reason—probably the biggest—that the vaccine market has stabilized, preventing shortages from becoming serious or routine. Now the system’s future is in jeopardy, thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” www.thebulwark.com/p/hhs-kenned...
"Charlie Kirk has to turn it into his own weird pathology around his sense of insecurity with women. I'm just saying, in a tough world, be a Taylor Swift....Don't be a Charlie Kirk." @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social and @jvl.bsky.social on MAGA's weird trad obsession:
A good conversation with an impressive woman. www.youtube.com/live/YMySsrg...
“Andy Warhol said, ‘Art is what you can get away with.’ What can a U.S. president get away with? Donald Trump is testing that question. (And answering it. The answer is: a lot.)” www.jaynordlinger.com/p/flag-games...
@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social: All the President’s ‘Butt Snorkelers’ A must-read Morning Shots @thebulwark.com: www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
“Ridiculous but serious. Trump is in many ways a buffoon. So are many dictators. People who dismiss the danger of Trump and Trumpism because of his buffoonishness are either fools or accomplices.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
Trump now at 37% approve/55% disapprove. On July 16, was at 40%/54%. Voters are gradually moving away from Trump. But elites continue to accommodate and acquiesce to him. So his authoritarian project marches ahead. poll.qu.edu/poll-release...
“Forty-four percent of America consistently returns to Trump and Trumpism. Isn’t it possible—isn’t it likely?—that they have done so again and again over the better part of a decade because they want to be right were we are? With an authoritarian strongman?” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
YELLEN: “.. Trump’s attempted sacking of Cook should be met with outrage, not with shrugs. .. And the financial community must raise its voice against a direct assault on the credibility of the dollar itself.” @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/d2ea...
A good time to re-read Tocqueville's praise of the jury system for preserving liberty and educating citizens in a democracy (DA I 2.8). www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...
"Ironically, these sorts of Democratic displays are relics of a recent period when the party was too confident about America’s inevitable march toward their view of progress...These sorts of issues are now sideshows." www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
"So much for the rule of law. So much for limits on the executive. So much for the legitimacy of opposition to the government. One can try to look away from the abyss for a while. But when the diversions end, one can’t help but see that we’re heading towards it." www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
"Yesterday featured a striking spectacle: A three-and-a-quarter-hour televised Politburo meeting, in which the highest-ranking government officials of the world’s oldest and once greatest democracy abased themselves ridiculously before their presidential idol." www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
I think Democrats will actually do well in 2026. But--no offense to Democratic Party loyalists!--I think Democrats are MORE likely to well in 2026 WITHOUT such a convention. Let the individual candidates run their races, and let the focus be on checking Trump. www.axios.com/2025/08/27/d...
"Here’s a section of the CBO report that Trump and his courtiers missed: 'We estimate that the changes in tariffs will reduce the size of the U.S. economy...The increases in tariffs will make consumer goods and capital goods more expensive.'" www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-four...
note how Trump on a daily basis is trying to normalize the idea that he's a dictator
“Part of the point was a theatrical display of law-enforcement power deployed against a critic of the administration…That was part of the point too—that the administration will offer only the thinnest of denials that it is gunning for its political enemies.” www.thebulwark.com/p/john-bolto...
Just casually laying the groundwork for violent repression of the opposition
"Kafka’s rehabilitation in Russia ended during the Putin regime...Oleg Orlov went on trial in Feb. 2024 for criticizing the invasion of Ukraine. At his first hearing, Orlov, in protest, began reading The Trial aloud. He was sentenced to four years in prison." compass.icwa.org/p/kafkas-the...
I'm one of the 37 targeted below by DNI Tulsi Gabbard. I haven't had a clearance nor worked in government since 2013. This is political theater & a dangerous example of government abusing its powers to punish private citizens for openly exercising their 1st Amendment rights. My full statement:
"A major shift of the Trump era has been that America’s most authoritarian-coded voters, who previously had been distributed between both parties, have clustered more and more into the GOP tent, where they sit as some of Trump’s most ferociously loyal defenders." www.thebulwark.com/p/dictator-f...
"Trump didn't praise South Korea, whose democratically elected leader was seated beside him. Instead he bragged about his 'great relationship' with the dictator of North Korea. 'I get along great with Kim Jong-un.' Of course he does. Why wouldn't he?" www.thebulwark.com/p/dictator-f...
"Trump wants a compliant Fed and a compliant military. The firings are less about the individuals getting the axe than about the chance to replace them with people loyal to him. Trump doesn’t want anyone in senior positions who might not be subservient to him." www.thebulwark.com/p/dictator-f...
"But of course, the business of THIS president is not fundamentally like that of his predecessors. The business of THIS president is subverting our free government. And yesterday was another day at the office for carrying out THAT business." www.thebulwark.com/p/dictator-f...
Trump and his people have used the summer months to up their despot game…At the same time, Vance sounds downright Orwellian on the John Bolton matter. Plus, Wes Moore punches back, the injustice of the trans military ban, and emerging signs of a broad Democratic coalition. youtu.be/KAbGkdtnmS8?...
"In only seven months, we’ve seen a remarkably sustained if somewhat chaotic series of abuses and usurpations in pursuit of the object of despotism. It’s a purposeful project, not an inadvertent one." www.thebulwark.com/p/despotism-...
New Executive Order (Aug. 25, 2025) - despite its name - reaches far beyond DC in potential use of the U.S. military inside and across the United States. Link: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... Highlight of some key provisions⬇️
@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social: It's not backsliding, it's a march to dictatorship. Only @thebulwark.com
I guess Trump read this morning’s Morning Shots at @thebulwark.com. Sorry he didn’t like it.
Q: “Are you prepared to order National Guard troops though into American cities if those governors don't request the federal deployment?” Trump: “I am.”
Trump is attempting to use the power of the state and the law to punish anyone who embarrasses him, whether his own former top official or an everyday immigrant. www.thebulwark.com/p/despotism-...
"We’re not seeing backsliding. In only seven months, we’ve seen a remarkably sustained if somewhat chaotic series of abuses and usurpations in pursuit of the object of despotism."
"Any normal administration would've apologized to him and be leaving him alone....this is very characteristic of despotism and dictatorship. You really don't let people get away with winning against you." @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social joins @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast:
Gov. Pritzker: “Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump…asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.’”
America 2025: Formalizing the use of military forces to routinely police American cities. Text of the EO: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Bolton speaks! “Trump’s Ukraine policy is no more coherent today than last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office…Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign.” www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/belt...
Trump and his people have used the summer months to up their despot game…At the same time, Vance sounds downright Orwellian on the John Bolton matter. Plus, Wes Moore punches back, the injustice of the trans military ban, and emerging signs of a broad Democratic coalition. youtu.be/KAbGkdtnmS8?...
“It’s a daunting task—one migrant taking on the full fury of the president of the United States and his lickspittle government…But Trump’s many other abuses must not give him cover to vengefully oppress Abrego Garcia.” www.thebulwark.com/p/despotism-...
“What we are seeing is not merely a “slide toward authoritarianism.” It’s a march toward despotism. And it’s a march whose pace is accelerating.” www.thebulwark.com/p/despotism-...
I recommend this talk with Col. Bree Fram. She's a patriot who's being treated appallingly, but expresses no bitterness but rather gratitude for the chance to serve. I'll add that the administration's attempted erasure of trans folks is a true disgrace. www.youtube.com/live/YMySsrg...
"Lt. Gen. Kruse was removed, presumably for failing to echo President Trump’s “obliteration” comment about U.S. strikes on Iran...Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Allvin announced early retirement...Their firing and forced resignation send a dangerous message." www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-tru...
Thousands of ICE agents are doing a lot more damage to our social fabric than millions of undocumented immigrants.
Bree Fram is very impressive. www.youtube.com/live/YMySsrg...
Leftist: Yes, Trump’s kind of a fascist. Now let me get back to my obsession, re-litigating fights with Democratic centrists from a decade or two ago. Centrist: Yes, there are signs of fascism. Now let me get back to complaining a lefty used some woke terms a few years ago. American democracy: 🤯🤯🤯
Trump makes stupid and easily explained and illustrated unforced error by going after the de minimis tariff exemption, affecting tens of millions of “ordinary Americans.” Democrats (so far as I can tell): 🦗🦗🦗. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Land of the free and home of the brave.
Patriots.
Referring to a mediocre breakfast restaurant as your culture and heritage is one of the whitest things I've ever read.
It might be my algorithms. But, from my vantage point, it is largely women—be they white Lululemon SoCal types or women of color, women’s young or old, some with abounding privilege or none at all—who are calling out ICE agents and shaming the ever loving fuck out of them www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6Vt5ACh/
LIVE today at noon. Then of course available on You Tube after... Bulwark on Sunday: Trump's Transgender Purge. A discussion with Col. Bree Fram. www.youtube.com/live/YMySsrg...
What I really want to see is the memo where they told everyone in the party to use the word "distraction" as often as possible.
💯
“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” — Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address as CA Governor, Jan. 5, 1967. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer Sigrid McCawley reacts to the Maxwell transcripts, saying Maxwell “repeatedly and brazenly lied” to the government and is trying to “recreate history.” Full statement
